1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic roll tape cutter, more particularly, to a tape guide device for an automatic roll tape cutter, which prevents a wound tape from being entangled or twisted due to a tension by a plurality of guide rolls while the tape is fed out.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, when goods are shipped out from manufacturing companies or goods are sold in such various stores as department stores or large discount stores, these various goods will be properly packed with a packing material like paper. Such a packing paper is mainly bonded by means of a band-type adhesive tape.
For the purpose of the more efficient and fast packing of goods, a so-called automatic roll tape cutter has been provided and widely used which has a large wound tape, i.e., roll tape contained therein, and, during packing, feeds out a required length of the wound adhesive tape and cuts the same automatically.
Such an automatic roll tape cutter, as shown in FIG. 1, generally comprises upper and lower cases 1 and 2, a tape feed-out unit 3 installed in the cases 2 and 3 for feeding out a tape by means of a plurality of rollers interlocked with a driver and a tape cutter 4 openably installed in front of the upper case 1 for cutting the fed-out tape.
The automatic roll tape cutter also comprises a tape mounting portion (not shown) into which a roll-type tape is inserted. However, for the automatic roll tape cutter problems exist in that the tape mounting portion and the roll tape are not identical to each other in size due to the inner diameters of the roll tape being designed differently as well as a plurality of guide rolls are properly arranged in such a manner as to suitably maintain a tension of the tape being.
First, when the wound roll tape is fed out, it is bent at a right angle due to the material of the tape and its adhesive. At this time, although a degree of bending can be varied with adhesive force of the tape, the bent portion of the tape during the feeding out of the tape is deformed and then entangled or twisted without being spread out straightly
Second, while the tape is led out through a plurality of guide rollers, it frequently becomes jammed into between the rolls or is entangled in the rollers. If such leading-out operation is continued, a load occurring at each of the rollers prevents the rotation of the rollers. In this case, an operator suffers from an inconvenience of monitoring the tape being fed out and removing the tape jammed or entangled from the rollers, and the working is delayed accordingly.
Third, since the inner diameters of the tape is not constant with those of various tapes, the centers of the tape mounting portion and the tape are not identical to each other, thereby causing delay of the working and, in a worse case, the roll tap cannot be used.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the conventional tape cutter by providing a tape guide device for automatic roll tape cutter, which during the feeding out of a roll tape, prevents the tape from being entangled or twisted due to deviation of the center of the tape and which, upon the generation of an erroneous operation during the feeding of the roll tape, regulates a guiding plate movably installed at both ends so as to simply correct the erroneous operation.
To accomplish the object of the present, according an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tape guide device for an automatic roll tape cutter, the roll tape cutter including a tape feed-out unit housed in a case for feeding out a roll tape loaded in a tape loading portion thereof through a plurality of guide rollers from a supply roller thereof, and a tape cutting unit which is mounted in front of the case for cutting the tape fed out at a proper length, the tape guide device comprising: a body disposed between the tape loading portion and the supply roller of the tape feed-out unit and having both ends, one end of which is hingeably mounted to one side wall of the tape feed-out unit as to be elastically biased toward an opening direction, and the other free end of which has engaging protrusions formed thereon; a first guide roller installed at the rear end of the body and having engaging recesses formed on an outer circumference of both ends thereof; a pair of stoppers horizontally installed inside the body in such a manner as to be moved oppositely with respect to each other, each of the stoppers having, at one end, a fixing piece protruded outwardly from the body so as to be inserted into the engaging recess of the first guide roller and being elastically biased toward its engaging direction; a second guide roller installed at the front end of the body; and locking means mounted to the other side wall of the tape feed-out unit for restricting the engaging protrusions of the body so as to fix the body in a closed state.
In the tape guide device of the present invention, the locking means is hinged to the side wall of the tape feed-out unit so as to be elastically biased toward its locking direction, and has a hook for elastically engaging and restricting the engaging protrusion of the body.
According to the present invention, when the tape is feed fed out from a supply roll while being properly tensioned from a point of time of the feeding-out along a curved face by the guide roller, it could be prevented from being entangled or twisted, and even in the case where an error operation occurs due to the tape being jammed into the guide roller during the feeding of the tape, the tape could be easily removed from the guide roller, thereby, increasing safety and reliability of the automatic roll tape cutter.